Google's IP anonymization fails to anonymize

In telling the world it will anonymize user IPs after only nine months, Google has appeased EU regulators. At least in part. But it looks like Mountain View's new policy is just another example of Google Privacy Theatre.

On Monday evening, when Google deputy counsel Nicole Wong trumpeted the new nine month policy to Silicon Valley's Churchill Club, she said the company was still mulling "the implementation details." But later in the week, the company outlined its plan with a few terse sentences tossed

After nine months, the company has confirmed with The Reg, Google will "change some of the bits" in the user IPs stored in its server logs. But as the plan stands now, it will leave cookie data alone.

This means the missing bits are easily retrieved.

More than a year ago, the company said it would "anonymize" its server logs after eighteen months. And sometime between March and July, it actually put this plan into action. (The company won't get more specific on dates, perhaps because it originally told the world the new policy would arrive in March).

In this case, anonymize meant "change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs as well as change the cookie information." Google now says it erases exactly eight bits from a user's IP, but it has yet to explain what it actually does to the cookie data. Whatever it's doing, it assures regulators that this eighteen month policy is "a significant addition to protecting user privacy."

Google stresses that its new nine month policy is still very much in the works. "I want to clarify that we are still working out the technical details," a company spokeswoman told us. But it looks like Google will erase fewer than eight IP bits under the nine month plan - without touching cookie info.

"After nine months, we will change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs," the company says. "After 18 months we remove the last eight bits in the IP address and change the cookie information...It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified."

You can debate whether erasing a few bits actually anonymizes an IP address. But as CNet points out, if your cookie data remains intact, restoring the full IP address is trivial. Google may erase some IP bits on your nine-month-old search queries, but those bits will remain intact on your newer queries - and both sets of queries will carry the same cookie info.

Google argues that users can always delete their cookies. "We have focused on IP addresses, because we recognize that users cannot control IP addresses in logs," the company says. "On the other hand, users can control their cookies.

"When a user clears cookies, s/he will effectively break any link between the cleared cookie and our raw IP logs once those logs hit the 9-month anonymization point. Moreover, we are still continuing to focus on ways to help users exert better controls over their cookies."

Large Hadron Collider is at the ready

On September 10, the world's largest particle accelerator will start up

ATLAS is one of the massive laboratories surrounding the huge underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, set to start up September 10.CERN

Late tomorrow night, pajama-clad scientists around the world will get ready to celebrate a long-anticipated wake-up call for particle physics. On September 10, researchers will for the first time attempt to circulate a beam of protons around the 27-kilometer-long circular tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, poised to become the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Although actual collisions between two proton beams aren’t expected to happen until October, the September 10 event is being billed as a milestone for the accelerator, which has been in the works for more than 15 years. The event will be streamed from webcast.cern.ch and via satellite.

In a few months, the proton beams will be five times more energetic than those any other collider has managed. Next year, when the accelerator is set to run at full capacity, each proton beam will carry seven times more energy and have about 30 times the intensity of any beam at any other accelerator.

The most intense collisions will generate the heat, energy and densities that existed just a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Physicists hope that the LHC will lead them beyond the standard model of particle physics and to signs of extra dimensions, new types of elementary particles that could account for most of the mass in the universe and, perhaps, rapidly evaporating, microscopic black holes that the accelerator may forge.

The first attempt to inject a proton beam into the collider tunnel will happen about 3:15 a.m. EDT. Hourly briefings from the CERN control center will begin at 4 a.m. EDT and include talks by LHC scientists and engineers as well as physics Nobel laureates. The nine hours of coverage will also include visits to the control rooms for the main LHC experiments and will show scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and at other U.S. particle accelerators enjoying the festivities in their pajamas. Click here for a full schedule, and on “planning of the day” for a pdf.

New Beijing founded on Olympics

As Beijing gears up for the Paralympics, its second sports extravaganza of the summer, a senior local official has said the promise of a "New Beijing, Great Olympics" is as yet only half complete, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

Tan Zhimin, deputy chief of the Beijing City Building Headquarters Office for 2008, said that right from the time the city won its bid to host the two Games, it was always intended that a "Great Olympics" would pave the way for a "New Beijing".

"The Olympics have driven up people's expectations for further social and economic development," Tan said.

Photo taken on Aug. 22, 2008 shows the nightscape of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing. The Olympic Green enjoys a beautiful night view shining with colors and lights during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. [Xinhua]

In 2005, the municipal government entrusted Tan's office to orchestrate the city's facelift. This involved coordinating more than 20 government departments in time for the sporting spectaculars being hosted by China for the first time.

Calling people "the source of the city's vitality", he said the goal of a more livable Beijing could not be realized without respecting public opinion.

From subsistence and entertainment to recreation and transport, a host of issues still needs to be tackled, he said.

Air quality, garbage and sewage disposal, the development of green spaces, and the building of emergency shelters for use in the event of natural disasters are all things that need to be looked at, he said.

"We know this is a long-term task. That's why we are seeking a permanent cure rather than symptomatic relief," he said.

Lin Zhiwei deputy manager of the environmental construction coordination department at the headquarters office, said governments at both the central and municipal level have summoned all resources available to honor the promise of a "Great Olympics".

"And this has turned the Olympics into a giant impetus to end the buck-passing culture and curb bureaucracy."

Do you know, Sunita won Gold in Beijing Olympics?

DO YOU know that besides the Indian sportsmen, who won medals in the Beijing Olympics, one Indian artist also made the country proud by winning the art competition at the Olympics. Sunita Lamba, who won the top art award, however, remains obscure, while India is hailing its three medalists, Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar and doling out rewards in cash and kind to them. This unsung Indian queen of the Olympics is still awaiting to be recognised.

For majority of the people, this name rings a surprise, but the lady has made Indians proud after winning the ’best artist’ award in the Global Fine Arts Competition-2008, jointly organised by the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese ministry of culture, the organising committee of XXIX Olympiad at China International Exhibition Centre.

While the three Indian medal winners have logged on countless hours on news channels and plenty of newsprint has been devoted to their exploits, no one has taken time to applaud the achievements of Lamba.

Entry into the Olympic Fine Arts Competition is a tough task and she managed entry after competing with 10,000 artists from 80 countries. Sunita’s 24-inch bronze sculpture titled ’Unity’ won the competition as it matched with the theme of the exhibition titled ’One World’. This exhibition will continue for 40 days and the artwork will be shown in various Chinese cities, as per the government plan.

Travesty of this victory lies in the fact that Indian authorities did not support the artist and she could not even meet the Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi as he refused to meet her.With no official support coming her way, Lamba arranged for the Beijing visit all alone and had to make all arrangements on her own.